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In this paper we introduce Ashworth's lifeworld fractions as a methodological framework for inclusive research with autistic people 'with profound learning disabilities'. We first define the fractions and then evaluate their potential for enabling research within the 'third space' of inclusive research. Fundamental to the third space is the inclusion of the social and support circles of people with profound learning disabilities within research. Using the example of a recent study we illustrate how the fractions are a useful enabler of this. We conclude by suggesting that a key value of the fractions is in how they take the research collective beyond the elements of experience that most obviously confront them to consider its full breadth and effects. We argue too that the fractions support the management of the collation and analysis of the copious amounts of data that are generated through qualitative research. We conclude by offering a new and critical dimension to the fractions through presenting them as a means through which those involved in the third space -- autistic people, their social and support circles, and researchers -- can come to more emic understandings of lived experience.

In September 2012, the process changed in England for how parents (and carers) can appeal against their child's exclusion from school. This paper is one of the first accounts of how parents experience the new system. Using data from a research study with a range of stakeholders in the appeals process, this paper focuses on the accounts of the 21 parents interviewed. Thematic analysis was utilised to identify the factors that motivate parents to make an appeal, the barriers and enablers to doing so, and the physical, emotional, and financial costs that result from engagement with the process. The findings reveal that the costs are extremely heavy for parents with very limited rewards. The process is experienced as inequitable with a bias towards schools and many of these parents call for the provision of experienced legal support to make it a more balanced system. In spite of the challenges involved the need to call schools to account remains a strong motivation to appeal but this was not the preferred option for parents. Instead they call for schools to develop more inclusive and enabling environments that rely more on understanding the needs of pupils and their families than on exclusion from school.

"Positive handling" has become a popular intervention within education and other services in England in the management of behaviours that challenge. This paper uses a vignette of an observation of the handling of children with autism as a starting point for consideration of whether this practice can ever really be experienced as positive or whether it is often little more than a mechanism of control that disregards the rights of disabled children and young people. All schools are mandated under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to protect the rights of disabled pupils, but, to date, there has been very little engagement by teachers with this agenda. This paper identifies some of the rights of pupils that are negated through current practice and evaluates what support Prouty's principles of pre-therapy from the field of counselling might offer teachers with developing a rights based agenda.

The experiences of disabled people suggest that ableism insidiously and invasively impacts upon the practice of counselling and related therapies. This article critiques a particular account of psychotherapy with a child with the label of autism to illustrate how ableism can disrupt the process of empathy and negate the therapeutic experience. In so doing the article highlights the inherent difficulties in traversing different epistemic positions to make sufficiently informed readings of counternormative expressions of being. General principles of counselling practice are then proposed to support practitioners with providing effective therapy for all clients.

Many professionals and carers who support people with the label of autism look to lecturers and "trainers" in autism to provide the answers on how to "manage" the "condition". This article describes how two lecturers in autism respond to this challenge by encouraging their students to focus on questions rather than answers. It is argued here that it is through the process of reflective thinking that people will find the most appropriate solutions to the issues that concern them. The article identifies some of the key questions that can support the reflective process and illustrates the applicability of these, beyond the limitations of labels, to every relationship between educator and learner.

It is nearly 30 years since Mary Warnock's "Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People" introduced the phrase "special educational needs" into the UK education system. In this article, Katherine Runswick-Cole, Research Associate at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Nick Hodge, Principal Lecturer in Research Development at Sheffield Hallam University, argue for the abandonment of the "special needs" discourse, claiming that it has, in fact, led to exclusionary practices within education. Building on the work of early years educators in Reggio Emilia schools in Northern Italy, the authors advocate for the adoption of the phrase "educational rights" and suggest that the positive impact of such a linguistic turn would be significant for the lives of young people currently described as having "special educational needs" and for children's rights.

The value of, and need for, parent-professional partnerships is an unchallenged mantra within policy relating to "special educational needs". In spite of this, partnerships continue to be experienced as problematic by both parents and professionals. This paper brings together the different perspectives of two disability researchers: one a parent of a disabled child while the other was a teacher for 20 years of children with the label autism. The paper deconstructs the concept of partnership and then, drawing on the expertise of parents, suggests how enabling and empowering parent-professional relationships might be achieved.

Disability research is conducted within a highly politicised "hotbed" of competing paradigms and principles. New researchers, who want to work within the social model, are soon faced with complex and challenging methodological and philosophical dilemmas. The social model advocates research agendas that are focused on the emancipation and empowerment of disabled people but, in reality, these are rarely achieved. To be successful researchers need to engage with innovative and creative methodologies and to share their experiences of these within environments that welcome challenge and debate. This paper focuses on Lifeworld and assesses its value as a tool for emancipatory research. Using examples from a study with parents, whose children were in the process of being labelled as having autism, the paper illustrates how the principles that "underpin" the methodology offered a supportive framework for a novice researcher.